Last month, the world was once again shocked and disgusted when the militant group calling themselves the Islamic State burned alive a 26 year old Jordanian pilot it had captured in Syria in December.
The Jordanian government responded by executing several high-profile Al Qaeda operatives, including a failed female suicide bomber.
Newstalk’s Shona Murray has just returned from the Middle East, where she met with the family of the executed pilot, in their hometown in Jordan.
Muadh was captured on the 24th December and on the 4th February, Isis released his execution video, showing him being burned alive in a cage.
All through this time, his family believed he was alive, and continued to support efforts by the Jordanian government in securing his release through prisoner swap.
Isis sent letters through the family’s uncle who was a brigadier general in the Jordanian army. This is Jawdat Al-Kasasbeh speaking to Shona about what they were told by Isis:
When and how did the family find out about his death?
They were gathered in a local hall in their municipality in Al Karak in Jordan; the whole of the town and community were gathering in support for the family, and the uncle received a phone call about Muadh’s fate – that he’d died by being set alight. They had information that he’d died on the 3rd of January, and the negotiations were false.
Is there support for the coalition in Jordan?
Many people were against them, even Murad, who went to see a Sheik to see if it was alright, morally, to fight them.
How are the family now?
His family are devout Muslims; they believe that Muadh is in heaven and died a martyr. Naturally they were devastated, and fully support the strikes by the Jordanian government in Syria and Iraq. Since his death, the family has recived death threats from Isis
